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Majd Al-Din Muhammad Khvafi
Majd al-Din Muhammad Khvafi ( fa, مجد الدین محمد خوافی; died August 1494) was a Persian bureaucrat, who was one of the leading figures of the Timurid Empire in the late 15th-century. Belonging to a family of bureaucrats from Khvaf, Majd al-Din dominated the government of Sultan Husayn Bayqara () in 1472–1478 and 1487–1490. He was ultimately dismissed in 1490, and later murdered by the hands of his rivals en route to Mecca. Background and early career Belonging to a family native to the Khvaf region in the eastern Iranian region of Khorasan, Majd al-Din was a son of Ghiyath al-Din Pir Ahmad Khvafi (d. 1453), who had occupied high offices under the Timurids, serving as the most powerful and longest enduring vizier of king Shah Rukh () from 1417 to 1447. As sedentary Tajiks (Iranians) from Khorasan, the family was part of the hereditary class of secretaries, tax collectors and accountants, who had normally served the ruling Turco-Mongol elite. They were possib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulistan (book)
''Gulistān'' ( fa, گُلِستان, Golestān, The Flower Garden; ), sometimes spelled Golestan, is a landmark of Persian literature, perhaps its single most influential work of prose. Written in 1258 CE, it is one of two major works of the Persian poet Sa'di, considered one of the greatest medieval Persian poets. It is also one of his most popular books, and has proved deeply influential in the West as well as the East. The ''Golestan'' is a collection of poems and stories, just as a flower-garden is a collection of flowers. It is widely quoted as a source of wisdom. The well-known aphorism still frequently repeated in the western world, about being sad because one has no shoes until one meets the man who has no feet "whereupon I thanked Providence for its bounty to myself" is from the ''Golestan''. The minimalist plots of the ''Golestans stories are expressed with precise language and psychological insight, creating a "poetry of ideas" with the concision of mathematical for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baburnama
The ''Bāburnāma'' ( chg, ; literally: ''"History of Babur"'' or ''"Letters of Babur"''; alternatively known as ''Tuzk-e Babri'') is the memoirs of Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Muhammad Bābur (1483–1530), founder of the Mughal Empire and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur. It is written in the Chagatai language, known to Babur as ''Türki'' ("Turkic"), the spoken language of the Andijan-Timurids. During the reign of emperor Akbar, the work was translated into Persian, the usual literary language of the Mughal court, by a Mughal courtier, Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, in AH 998 (1589–90 CE). Bābur was an educated Timurid prince and his observations and comments in his memoirs reflect an interest in nature, society, politics and economics. His vivid account of events covers not just his own life, but the history and geography of the areas he lived in as well as the people with whom he came into contact. The book covers topics as diverse as astronomy, geography, statecraft, military m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aq Qoyunlu
The Aq Qoyunlu ( az, Ağqoyunlular , ) was a culturally Persianate,Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two tribal confederations: Akkoyunlu (White Sheep) (1378–1507) and Qaraoyunlu (Black Sheep). They were Persianate Turkoman Confederations of Anatolia (Asia Minor) and Azerbaijan." SunniMichael M. Gunter, ''Historical dictionary of the Kurds'' (2010), p. 29 Turkoman tribal confederation founded in the Diyarbakir region by Qara Yuluk Uthman Beg that ruled parts of present-day eastern Turkey from 1378 to 1503, and in their last decades also ruled Armenia, Azerbaijan, much of Iran, Iraq, and Oman where the ruler of Hormuz recognised Aq Qoyunlu suzerainty. The Aq Qoyunlu empire reached its zenith under Uzun Hasan. History Etymology The name Aq Qoyunlu, literally meaning "hose withwhite sheep", is first mentioned in late 14th century sources. It has been suggested that this nam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qazi Isa Savaji
Qazi Isa Savaji (also spelled Qadi; died 1491) was a Persian bureaucrat from the Savaji family, who was among the leading figures during the reign of the Aq Qoyunlu rulers Uzun Hasan () and Ya'qub Beg (). Biography Qazi Isa was a member of the Savaji family from Persian Iraq (''Irāq-i Ajam''), a region corresponding to western part of Iran. In his early career, Qazi Isa served as the ''qadi'' (chief judge) of Tabriz, the capital city of the Turkmen Aq Qoyunlu. Together with Abu Bakr Tihrani and Amir Zahir al-Din Ibrahim Shah, he was among the leading figures in the court of the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan (). During this period, the prominent scholar Shaykh Ibrahim Gulshani (died 1534) advocated that Qazi Isa should be made the tutor of Uzun Hasan's son Ya'qub Beg. Qazi Isa finally received the position at the accession of Ya'qub Beg in 1478, as well as the office of chief magistrate. During his reign, Ya'qub Beg launched a land reform in order to consolidate his realm, crea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinar
The dinar () is the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, and its historical use is even more widespread. The modern dinar's historical antecedents are the gold dinar and the silver dirham, the main coin of the medieval Islamic empires, first issued in AH 77 (696–697 CE) by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. The word "dinar" derives from the Latin " ''dēnārius''," a silver coin of ancient Rome, which was first minted about c.211 BCE. The English word "dinar" is the transliteration of the Arabic دينار (''dīnār''), which was borrowed via the Syriac ''dīnarā'', itself from the Latin ''dēnārius''. The Kushan Empire introduced a gold coin known as the ''dīnāra'' into India in the 1st century AD; the Gupta Empire and its successors up to the 6th century adopted the coin. The modern gold dinar is a projected bullion gold coin, not issued as official currency by any state. Legal tender Countries currently usi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia, south of the fertile plains of Southern Russia in Eastern Europe, and north of the mountainous Iranian Plateau of Western Asia. It covers a surface area of (excluding the highly saline lagoon of Garabogazköl to its east) and a volume of . It has a salinity of approximately 1.2% (12 g/L), about a third of the salinity of average seawater. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the southwest, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast. The sea stretches nearly from north to south, with an average width of . Its gross coverage is and the surface is about below sea level. Its main freshwater inflow, Europe's longest river, the Volga, enters at the shallow north end. Two deep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astarabad
Gorgan ( fa, گرگان ; also romanized as ''Gorgān'', ''Gurgān'', and ''Gurgan''), formerly Esterabad ( ; also romanized as ''Astarābād'', ''Asterabad'', and ''Esterābād''), is the capital city of Golestan Province, Iran. It lies approximately to the north east of Tehran, some away from the Caspian Sea. In the 2006 census; its population was 269,226, in 73,702 families. History There are several archaeological sites near Gorgan, including Tureng Tepe and Shah Tepe, in which there are remains dating from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic eras. Some other important Neolithic sites in the area are Yarim Tepe, and Sange Chaxmaq. Also, the nearby Shahroud Plain has many such sites. The number of confirmed Neolithic sites on the Gorgan Plain now totals more than fifty. According to the Greek historian Arrian, Zadracarta was the largest city of Hyrcania and site of the "royal palace". The term means "the yellow city", and it was given to it from the great number of oranges ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khvaja Qivam Al-Din Nizam Al-Mulk Khvafi
Khvaja Qivam al-Din Nizam al-Mulk Khvafi was a Persian bureaucrat who served the Timurid Empire in the late 15th-century. His father was a provincial judge from Khwaf in the Khorasan region of eastern Iran. According to the contemporary historian Isfizari, Qivam was a descendant of Fasih Khwafi's great-grandfather Khvaja Majd, who ruled in Khvaf in the early 14th-century. In 1471/2, the Timurid ruler of Khorasan, Sultan Husayn Bayqara (), appointed Qivam al-Din as his vizier. Together with another vizier Khvaja Afzal al-Din Muhammad Kirmani (appointed in 1473/4), Qivam al-Din plotted to have the powerful bureaucrat Majd al-Din Muhammad Khvafi dismissed through a charge of embezzlement. Pressurized by these two highly competent bureaucrats, Sultan Husayn first had Majd al-Din jailed (as was the tradition), and then started an investigation into the charge. An error on the part of the accusers, resulted in the release of Majd al-Din and drop of the charge. In June 1498, Qivam al-Din ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viziers
A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a helper but afterwards became the representative and successor of the ''dapir'' (official scribe or secretary) of the Sassanian kings. In modern usage, the term has been used for government ministers in much of the Middle East and beyond. Several alternative spellings are used in English, such as ''vizir'', ''wazir'', and ''vezir''. Etymology Vizier is suggested to be an Iranian word, from the Pahlavi root of ''vičir'', which originally had the meaning of a ''decree'', ''mandate'', and ''command'', but later as its use in Dinkard also suggests, came to mean ''judge'' or ''magistrate''. Arthur Jeffery considers the word to be a "good Iranian" word, as has a well-established root in Avestan language. The Pahlavi ''viči ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divan
A divan or diwan ( fa, دیوان, ''dīvān''; from Sumerian ''dub'', clay tablet) was a high government ministry in various Islamic states, or its chief official (see ''dewan''). Etymology The word, recorded in English since 1586, meaning "Oriental council of a state", comes from Turkish ''divan'', from Arabic ''diwan''. It is first attested in Middle Persian spelled as ''dpywʾn'' and ''dywʾn'', itself hearkening back, via Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian, ultimately to Sumerian ''dub'', clay tablet. The word was borrowed into Armenian as well as ''divan''; on linguistic grounds this is placed after the 3rd century, which helps establish the original Middle Persian (and eventually New Persian) form was ''dīvān'', not ''dēvān'', despite later legends that traced the origin of the word to the latter form. The variant pronunciation ''dēvān'' however did exist, and is the form surviving to this day in Tajiki Persian. In Arabic, the term was first used for the army ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ali-Shir Nava'i
'Ali-Shir Nava'i (9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501), also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAli-Shir Herawī ( Chagatai: نظام الدین علی شیر نوایی, fa, نظامالدین علیشیر نوایی) was a Timurid poet, writer, statesman, linguist, Hanafi Maturidi mystic and painter who was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature. Nava'i believed that his native Chagatai Turkic language was superior to Persian for literary purposes, an uncommon view at the time and defended this belief in his work titled ''Muhakamat al-Lughatayn'' (''The Comparison of the Two Languages''). He emphasized his belief in the richness, precision and malleability of Turkic vocabulary as opposed to Persian. Because of his distinguished Chagatai language poetry, Nava'i is considered by many throughout the Turkic-speaking world to be the founder of early Turkic literature. Many places and institutions in Central Asia are named after him. Life Alisher Nava'i was born in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ilkhanate
The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate ( fa, ایل خانان, ''Ilxānān''), known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (, ''Qulug-un Ulus''), was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanid realm, officially known as ''Iranzamin'' (), was ruled by the Mongols, Mongol House of Hulagu. Hulagu Khan, the son of Tolui and grandson of Genghis Khan, inherited the Middle Eastern part of the Mongol Empire after his brother Möngke Khan died in 1260. Its core territory lies in what is now part of the countries of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. At its greatest extent, the Ilkhanate also included parts of modern Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia (country), Georgia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, part of modern Dagestan, and part of modern Tajikistan. Later Ilkhanate rulers, beginning with Ghazan in 1295, converted to Islam. In the 1330s, the Ilkhanate was ravaged by the Black Death. Its last khan Abu Sa'id (Ilkhanid dynasty), Abu Sa'id died in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
